Blog Challenge

okay, I finished my 1st blog challenge!! The 1st part was to make of list of things I consider unlucky which I did several days ago. The 2nd part was to create a scrapbook layout about the same thing. That's it up there :) Can't wait for the next challenge to be posted!

My Grandma

I realized that today would have been my Grandma's 94th birthday. It is really hard for me to believe that she has been gone for 12 yrs now. I really miss her so much sometimes, we were really close and she was very special to me and I wish I could just spend one more day with her. I would love for her to meet Duane and the kids. Right before she died I was able to tell her all about Duane ( she was living in NJ then and I was in NC) She was so excited for me and couldn't wait to meet him, she never got the chance. I never really got to say goodbye and that hurts. I never really told her how much she meant to me. In a family as large as mine it is easy to get lost sometimes, Grandma always made time for me and made me feel special. She was always there for me when I needed her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA! I still love you so much and think of you often :)

Unlucky Me

okay, this post is for a challenge I'm doing. You can read all about it here:

http://www.thiseverydaylife.com/

So here is my list of unlucky things:

~ no soda in the house
~ not getting enough time to sleep
~ forgetting to take out dinner
~ leaving my camera at home
~ running out of gas (I have unfortunatley done this several times)
~ not making a list of things to do ( i forget everything if it's not written down)
~ forgetting to tape GH
~ not charging my cell phone


well, that's just a few, i could probably go on for a while. Now off to plan my layout!

Friday Already

wow, this week went by fast. Not much really went on this week, I spent most of Monday in meetings at the elementary school.

Most important of those was the speech meetings for the kids. Ryan has been in speech therapy at school for 3yrs now, he has done really well w/ most of his sounds but just can't get that "r" sound right. We did make the decision though to take him out because he is missing alot of class time and has been working on this one last sound for over a year.

Then there was Ashlyn's meeting, her speech is not even close to as bad as Ryan's and she is not actually in therapy, they just wanted to do an evaluation on her to see if she needed to go especially since Ryan's speech was so bad to start with. Anyway the therapist tells me she doesn't really need speech therapy right now, MOST of the time she said her words at age appropraite levels but sometimes she would mess up the sounds and when the therapist asked her why Ashlyn told her she did it because she wants to sound like her brother!! 3 years of trying to change the way Ryan talks and she is trying to sound like that on purpose. UUGGGHH !!! Sometimes I just don't know what to do with her.

Anyway, other than that I spent Wed & Thurs helping with the end of 9 weeks testing at the school and now the weekend is finally here. It is suppossed to be georgous and I have no real plans. Just going to have a nice lazy weekend :)

My Little Princess

First let me say that I love Ashlyn! I cannot imagine my life without her. She is smart and kind, she listens most of the time, uses her manners. Overall I am a very lucky parent, I do know that.

Now that I said that, I need to vent. SHE IS DRIVING ME INSANE!! I cannot for the life of me figure out what is wrong with this child. She will be 6yrs old next month and lately out of nowhere she will go from be perfectly fine one minute to very clingy and whiney. She is acting like a 2yr old and I don't know what to do with her. She did not even act like this when she was 2. I have asked her if something is bothering her and she just says that she misses me and wants to be with me. I NEVER leave this child except when she goes to school. Anywhere else I go she is always with me so i don't understand this. I have tried spending extra time with her after school, just the 2 of us, but that seems to make it worse. She just pitches a fit when our time is over and I have to go make dinner. Or she will follow me around the house like a puppy. I am completley lost as to what I should I do with her. I am hoping she will just grow out of it, especially now that it is getting warm and she will want to go play outside with the other kids. I guess till then I just suffer :)

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days when everything got on your nerves, I woke up this morning around 7 and i could hear the kids in Ryan's room playing with his trains, I was so happy they were playing together nicely I thought I could maybe get a little more sleep. Well, the playing nicely lasted about 5 more minutes, then I got up and listened to them argue and fight for the next, oh 3 hours until it was time for dance. I though I was going to kill them both. They continued their bickering as soon as we got in the car after dance and didn't really stop until Duane came home but then he decided to be a nuisance and has spent the rest of the day bothering me. He keeps coming in here trying to be cute and funny but he is just making me crazy. Oh well, I'm done bitching for now. I think I am going to get ready for bed and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day :)

Back to School !?!

okay, I have officially done it and registered for college next fall :) Duane and I talked about it last week and I am going crazy being home but I still want to be around when the kids are not in school (summers) and I also do not want to work overnight for the rest of my life.

Before Ashlyn came along I was on my way to a teaching degree but that will take another 3 years and requires transferring to a 4yr college that is 1hr away so I am not going to do that but instead get my associates degree in early childhood education/teacher associate then I can either teach preschool (which I already love doing when I get the chance) or I can be a teachers asst. at an elementary school (close enough to being a actual teacher right?)

Part of me thinks I am completely insane, what am I thinking going back to school I will be 33 yrs old in the fall, can I really do homework again? Do I really want to? Part of me is really excited though, I love working w/ little kids and I know it is something I have always wanted to do.

Wonderful Weekend

wow, what a beautiful weekend this was. The weather was sunny and in the low 70s, my sister was here and we just had a really nice visit. We didn't really do much, we mostly hung out at my brother Jay's house while the men and the boys rode their 4 wheelers & dirt bike, the my sister tried to ride and got hurt. Spent the evening just hanging around. We had a sleepover at mom's then today my SIL Tyani & I took our kids to the movies to see Happy Feet. wasn't as good as I thought it would be but it was okay. Now I am home the kids are in bed and I think I am going to head there early myself, this time change really messes with me because I NEED sleep. I tend to get pretty moody if I don't get my sleep :)

Way to go Ryan!

just want to brag about my little boy a bit. Today at school they had a parade for all the kids who have over 100 accelerated reader points and Ryan now has 198pts. There were only about 30 kids in the whole school who have 100pts so far and Ryan is in the top 5. It amazes me how well he reads because when he started 1st grade it was torture just getting him to pick up a book. So way to go sweetie, Mommy is very, very proud of you :)

All In A Day's Work

well, it's sort of been a busy day, but quiet at the same time if that makes sense. I managed to get the house cleaned up, the sheets washed and changed on all the beds, the heating guy came and cleaned the heat/AC unit, I went to the store, got the oil changed on my car and have even scrapped a little bit and it's only 1:30.

I love days like this. It feels so good to have done so much and then actually have time for myself. The kids will be home soon and hopefully they won't have to much homework so maybe we can hang out a little bit. Life is good :)

Friends

Lately I have been thinking about life, my life in particular and the relationships I have had with other people. my parents, my siblings, my kids, and my friends. This has started because I can't find my oldest friend. Her phone is disconnected, she is not answering e-mails or even snail mail. She has had a pretty rough life in general and this is not the 1st time this has happened. She lives in NJ, I am in NC so I can't just pop in and see if she's okay. I do believe she will eventually get in touch w/ me when things get better for her, but the last time i spoke w/ her she was having trouble w/ her husband and quite frankly I am really worried about her this time.

Anyway this got me thinking about other people who have come into my life and what they meant to my life and also what I want them to mean. I think I have treated some people unfairly. I have listened to others and believed things that maybe I shouldn't have, I should have asked questions instead. I have lost some friendships by being too busy instead of making time to get together. For awhile this didn't bother me. I have a wonderful family and I believed that was enough, that in the end they would really be all that mattered. I changed my mind, I miss these people, I would like to have them back in my life. Hopefully they will understand and forgive me.

Happy Day

it has been a really nice day today. Duane let me sleep in a little and then we headed to Raleigh to go to the flea market. It was a little windy but we had a really fun time together. We don't really get alot of family time with work, school and the kids activities so this was really a lot of fun. Days like this make we really remember why I love my family so much :)

Husbands

today wasn't too bad, I did spend my morning making phone calls for my loving husband while I should have been sleeping since I worked last night. He gets on these kicks where he decides he wants to buy something and it is never something easy I can go pick up at wal-mart.

In the last 3 weeks he has decided he wants this car he saw in a repo lot. It actually doesn't look bad compared to the car he drives now, problem is the bank that actually owns the car is in Maryland and the woman who I keep talking to trying to figure out IF we can even buy it and for how much is not really being that helpful. She never returns phone calls and Duane keeps bothering me about it like I can make this go any faster.

We went to an art gallery w/ the kids on Sunday and since then he has decided that he wants another "cornbread". Cornbread is an artist he discovered on our 10th anniversary trip to Ashville in '05. he already has 2 paintings and 1 really cool marker drawing by this artist and the painting he wants now is in a gallery in GA. That purchase wasn't as difficult as the car but the gallery is only open for 4 hrs. 3 days a week so i had to wake up just so I could call this lady. But the bright side is his cornbread will be here no later than Tues. :)

Other than that, today was my sisters birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDA!! I love you and miss you. She turned 35 today. I really wished she lived alot closer,she is my best friend and I miss having her around to talk to. She was suppossed to come visit this weekend but her kitty got hurt and had surgery last night so she can't leave him now and the trip would be too long to bring him. Hopefully she will be able to come soon.